Furry, feathered friends and imposters we met along the way

So what can we say as our trip winds to a close? A retrospective and reflection would be best. But we find ourselves without time, signaling to us we are indeed close to home, alas. But we could not end without showing you a few of our friends we met along the way, even if their pictures are not all up to the same quality of others we’ve used. So here goes:











Black Hills Mountain Goat






Peacock in Stanley Park

Willamette Valley Llama





An unusual pairing: a grizzly and a black bear

The First Imposter...


Stellar's Blue Jay in Montana

Another Imposter! This one found in Arco, the first town to ever be powered fully by atomic energy. See what happens to the wildlife....

Canadian goslings (guess where?)






Moose bathing in the Snake River, WY

Another thirsty moose, outside our cabin

Elk posing

We found the Tin Man!

And our story ends at the beginning...with a real dinosaur egg, found in South Dakota.....

Passing Thru'

The road east traversed many landscapes. Some timeless, like the Black Hills and the Badlands, others bearing the imprint of mankind, like the vast agricultural plains and grasslands. It was hard not to think about the impact of “civilization” on the environment.


In the Badlands




Petrified Wood

South Dakota Flies the Flag!

Global warming activism was evident in Canada more than the U.S. At the Columbia Icefields we saw the glacier receding and the government marked the loss. In Vancouver, we saw TV spots advocating the curtailment of greenhouse gases. Driving across the Midwest, we filled our tank with a mixture of gas and ethanol, cheaper than the gas available on the east coast.



Glacier receding since 1992

And we also kept an eye on the forces of nature. Both I-80 and I-90 were closed at different times. We listened to news, weather stations, and the trucker channel on XM radio in our effort to avoid flood areas, and watched the dramatic skyscape as we drove in and out of thunderstorms.

On another note, we want to thank all of you who participated in the mystery photo contest! We need to come clean about it. The mystery photo was not the one we intended! We posted it while we were learning how to upload and place photos in the blog. The photo was nothing more exotic than cracking blue paint on the ground. Please forgive us! We repent, and we have a mystery prize for all of those who sent in replies. We also now have a safer approach -- a mystery quote. Any takers? Which U.S. President said ; “ Never kick a fresh turd on a hot day” ?

Canada to Wyoming

A Happy Camper...

Our trip took us through a wide variety of city and natural landscapes. In Vancouver, we saw the first signs of the Canadian anti-war efforts focused on Afghanistan. And we encountered a sixties style shop named the Urban Shaman, in which people were apparently smoking dope and “doing” natural herbs, such as LSA in lieu of LSD. Peyote buds were blooming under growlamps, marketed to facilitate inner- journeys (sound familiar?) that lasted 6-36 hours. Ken’s hair has been growing steadily longer since we left and he is beginning to look the part – soon to change unless Micheline’s arguments prevail.

The Vancouver Art Gallery

The art landscape was also varied. The exhibit ‘Krazy’ ( AnIme cartoons and video games) was not to our liking but interesting, and Rebecca Belmore a feminist artist had a couple of political pieces (see the photo of her scarred back). “Zhang Huan: Altered States” documented a number of his bizarre performances and recent sculptures made from ash gathered from Buddhist temples. Most powerful was his array of head shots in which his face is gradually covered with black calligraphy until it is completely black. Local artists were featured in “Canadian Women artists: a Dialogue with Emily Carr” which Micheline had been looking forward to since seeing Carr’s work side-by-side with Georgia O’Keefe’s at the Nat Women’s Museum in DC. Only a few of her paintings were there, but they stood out like a force of nature, totem heads merging with abstracted trees and rocks. Her vision drove us to nearby Stanley Park, to soak up directly the giant trees, lush plantings, masses of rhododendrons of all colors. Trees, trees, trees! No wonder M feels an affinity with Canadian painters. Even the park has a dedicated “Painters Circle”. Stanley Park trees

Louise Bourgeois' eye-benches in the Seattle Sculpture Garden.

The short 3 plus hour trip to Seattle at last brought a relief from three weeks of rain. We soaked up the sun in the Seattle Sculpture garden . We stayed at a great union hotel called the Edgewater. Built right on a fishing dock, it is renowned because Ringo Starr went fishing out from one of the first floor windows - a plaque in his honor by that door. We were a little worried because the staff were wearing “fair contract” pins but they told us they expected a great settlement and the pins were just part of the contract campaign. That night we attended a labor and community reception thrown by Seattle Fund Raiser Linda Mitchel in support of the ‘Win-Win Coalition’, the local C-4 table, but became increasingly concerned about the Gubernatorial election. Republican Rossi ‘s numbers appear to be surging upward.

In Portland -- in addition to our Williamette Valley excursion (see Wine and Food supplement below) our friends Dave Grushkin, Lori and their daughter Alisa, brought us to spectacular Multnomah Falls and the Portland Rose garden.

Ken and Dave Grushkin Columbia River Gorge

Trying our hand at floral photography....3 of the 1000's of varieties

The beautiful trek to Wyoming, along the Columbia River gorge and across the 45th Parallel, took us through bustling Boise, Idaho. We were careful using public facilities – especially men’s rooms, looking out for stray feet underneath stall partitions and graffiti markings noting “ Larry was here”.

Bustling Boise comes alive at sundown

Continuing toward Wyoming we stopped at Craters of the Moon National Monument, where we camped on a large lava flow in the moonlight. This dramatic volcanic area of pitchblack rock and ancient lava was actually used by NASA astronauts preparing for moon landings.

2,000 year-old limber pine, trapped in lava flow and surrounded by new vegetation

Home on the Lava

We reached the Tetons on a cloudless day and hiked through heavily-scented pine and aspen forest to the Phelps Lake overlook. Our guide was Lyn Cunningham who also took us to the National Museum of Wildlife Art perched above a wild elk refuge. Filled with animal bronzes, the collection also includes many paintings by Carl Rungius, the Old Master of wildlife art, and some fascinating 19th-century drawings of massive buffalo herds and the fate that befell them. Lyn and his wife Dorothy moved from Washington DC, where he and Ken worked together on the DC Housing Authority Board of Commissioners, to Dubois, Wyoming (pop. 986) 90 minutes from Jackson. Dubois features the Cowboy Cafe, a not-so-bustling breakfast stop, among other less-than-fast-paced establishments. At 7000 feet, it is surrounded by magnificent red rock canyon land.

Phelps Lake

Antler Arch in Jackson, WY



The Grand Teton range

Ground cover on June 19th near Dubois!

Dawn on the wild elk flats

Food and Wine Supplement

After 10 days in the mountains we took an urban swing through Vancouver, Seattle and Portland.
With some fancy mapwork, we were happy to discover that a very slight detour from our route would take us via Kelowna through the heart of Western Canada’s finest wine-growing region, the Okanagan Valley. 84 beautiful wineries to choose from!
We stopped at Quails Gate and Mission Hills, the latter founded by the guy who launched Mike’s Hard Lemonade. After Mike made his fortune, he decided to try his hand at grapes. Among the 10 different Mission Hill wines we tasted, the Ice wine and Rieslings that we assumed would be best turned out to be loaded down with sugar. In fact, the ice wine was reminiscent of Mike’s original creation. We found a wonderful Pinot Grigio, just as we’ve found an abundance of great Pinot Grigio throughout Canada.

Views from Quail's Gate and Mission Hills

At Quails Gate the only really interesting wine we tasted was Old Vines Foch, from a varietal (Foch) that is new to us. Named after the (in)famous French Admiral who was revered after World War I and disdained after World War II , this complex and unusual tasting grape shall remain non-descript, for now, as a bottle of this curious wine could be among the prizes we share for solving our mystery photo quizzes.

We honed our mapwork skills further in Oregon where our friend Dave Grushkin took us into the Willamette Valley, swooping over the city of Portland and onto dirt roads through orchards and vineyards. After tasting some terrible wine from Ponzi (the name should have tipped us off) where a used car salesman posing as a wine pourer maintained a fixed smile throughout, we happily stumbled upon Brickhouse winery. This very small production wine sells out immediately upon release, but they give people on the e-list first access to their wine before the distributors. So they really do love sharing their wine with people who love it too. That was evident in the tasting room, a large barn eclectically transformed, surrounded by wildflowers and a well-used hammock. As we pulled up, the friendly wine manager was pouring for a single customer. Tasting at Brickhouse is by appointment only and even the winery access road is marked ‘Closed’. Ken called and mentioned that we had enjoyed their Gamay Noir two nights before in a wonderful restaurant named Herbfarm and that opened the door.

Entering Brickhouse

and tasting room

After the next tasting, at Penner-Ash, a brief lunch seemed necessary before driving further. At Horseradish restaurant, in Carlton, a selection of local cheeses and such revived us sufficiently to be able to taste a new offering from the son of the famed vintner Ken Wright who helped spark the Willamette Valley Pinot Noir craze. We think it was a cabernet-merlot blend but our memory of this lunch is slightly hazy. Continuing further in the Willamette Valley we went to Argyle winery in Dundee to re-taste their vintage 2002 brut, also served at the Herbfarm. However, they were only pouring the 2000, which was not bad, but led us steadily downhill through an array of sparklers that ended in a fizzy Pinot Noir. Imagine tasting a bitter deep purple sparkling wine. Not. And we’ll say no more.
Some 08 road trip wine recommendations we leave you with include a British Columbian Pinot Noir named Burrowing Owl, and the Mission Hills Pinot Gris, a French H. Billiot Brut Reserve, a small production (35,000 cases) Champagne that’s terrific, and the Brickhouse Gamay Noir and any of their Pinot you can get your hands on (especially the 2006 vintage).Their next release is in the late fall – get some of the Gamay for Thanksgiving.

The Herbfarm (outside of Seattle) was part of a three week long celebration of Micheline’s birthday which started in Vancouver and will culminate in a week or so in Chicago. The Herbfarm is a special place; rustic elegance, herbs picked from their gardens (as you might have guessed) and an extraordinarily talented staff.
Our friends, Erik and Lenore Hanisch, joined us for M’s celebration and they brought a magic carpet as a gift.......

At the Herbfarm entrance----

We’ll spare you the complete list of extraordinary food and wine pairings at the Herbfarm , but one dish involved salmon smoked on the tips of fresh-picked Douglas fir branches. And the evening culminated with a vintage 1912 Barbeito Bual Madeira. We’ve never been fans of the oft too sweet Madeira but this one deserved a chance. Nutty and gracious at 96 (remind you of any family members?) A treat.
Back in Vancouver where M’s B’day celebration began, we visited the Blue Water Café, another “rustic elegant” restaurant that served up a three tier food tower of fresh crustaceans, sushi, oysters and the like. And the following night we ate at the Chinese Imperial Palace, the place where Johnny Dukovich (from Micheline’s Tuesday night art group) got married. The live prawns, barely cooked and incredibly juicy, were the best we have ever had.
---Stay tuned for a broader cultural, environmental and political overview of these areas in our next posting.